Sophia Bush Opens Up About the Alleged Harassment She Faced on the One Tree Hill Set

Back in November, in the midst of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the rise of the #MeToo movement, members of the cast and crew of One Tree Hill—including Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton—released a letter accusing the creator of that show, Mark Schwahn, of sexual harassment.

“Many of us were, to varying degrees, manipulated psychologically and emotionally. More than one of us is still in treatment for post-traumatic stress," the letter read. "Many of us were put in uncomfortable positions and had to swiftly learn to fight back, sometimes physically, because it was made clear to us that the supervisors in the room were not the protectors they were supposed to be. Many of us were spoken to in ways that ran the spectrum from deeply upsetting, to traumatizing, to downright illegal. And a few of us were put in positions where we felt physically unsafe."

Now, in a new interview with Andy Cohen, Bush is taking the conversation even further, describing a time she says Schwahn touched her inappropriately. "The first time Mark Schwahn grabbed my ass I hit him in front of six other producers and I hit him fucking hard," she told Cohen. "And he came back to L.A. and I was told years later by one of the then writers who became an EP that he came back being like, ‘That fucking entitled bitch, who does she think she is,’ and this very sweet man named Mike who I love and who is like a ride-or-die for me was like, ‘Maybe you just shouldn’t touch the girls,’ and, ya know, Mark gave him the option of shut up and keep your job or get out.”

Bush found herself in a difficult situation: quit and "kill" her career or stay in an uncomfortable workplace. "Because this is what people don’t understand, they go, ‘Oh well, why don’t you just leave?’" she says. "First of all, why am I supposed to suffer and kill my own career because somebody else can’t keep their dick in their pants? Second of all, there is a whole crew that people don’t know about.”

Bush stayed, and Schwahn helmed One Tree Hill for eight seasons. However, after the OTH allegations were made, additional ones were levied against him by the cast and crew of The Royals. He was investigated and subsequently fired from that show in December.